I walked into Flora’s Friday Film ready to see Mad Max Fury Road, as I didn’t realize “Mad Max” was a larger concept. Instead, I saw a younger Mel Gibson and Tina Turner in a film which spoke about the nature of civilization and naivety of children beyond the low-budget but surprisingly well-done action scenes.
Mad max is the prototypical loner-hero combo, a wandering nomad. When he battles Blaster in the Thunderdome, Max stops, sparing Blaster’s life when he finds out he is mentally challenged. His behavior sharply contrasts that of the residents of bartertown, who show no mercy and demand a death. Civilization is not so civilized, and this installment of Mad Max shows the humans living together may congregate towards more feral, mob-like mentalities instead of good.
On the other hand, the children who rescue Mad Max are innocent and unknowing in nature, akin to the lost boys of the Peter Pan story. The create a reality for themselves based on limited evidence and are able to stand by it despite the accumulation of facts presented.
The movie caused me to think about how humans get from being those children, to being members of a society whose core beliefs are not always good. The contrast between individual and group, and child and man run deep, and may be astonishingly accurate even now.
Joanne, it’s a great point you make about the contrast between the savage adults and civilized children in Mad Max. It’s particularly interesting because you’d expect the roles to be reversed, right? According to Freud, children are supposed to be pretty much completely controlled by the id, acting barbarically, violently, and animalistic towards one another, whilst those primitive behaviors are expected to dissipate in adulthood. Mad Max disobeys Freudian theory then… Maybe it’s making the statement that humans are inherently good upon birth and evil is taught to us by society.
Joanne, it’s a great point you make about the contrast between the savage adults and civilized children in Mad Max. It’s particularly interesting because you’d expect the roles to be reversed, right? According to Freud, children are supposed to be pretty much completely controlled by the id, acting barbarically, violently, and animalistic towards one another, whilst those primitive behaviors are expected to dissipate in adulthood. Mad Max disobeys Freudian theory then… Maybe it’s making the statement that humans are inherently good upon birth.